An agricultural economy dependent on world prices
The country is sparsely urbanized, but has around 200 towns with populations of between 10,000 and 100,000. Dar es Salaam has a population of 2.7 million, while the capital Dodoma has just 180,000. Around 70% of the population lives in rural areas, although this figure is falling year on year. GDP still depends on agrarian resources, with agriculture accounting for 25% of the country's GDP and employing 65% of the working population. A special feature is that all land belongs to the State, which can grant leases for up to 99 years!
Nyererist socialism, followed by liberalization in 1983, focused on farms, first village communities, then large state farms and private holdings. All these farms are now equipped to a satisfactory level of mechanization compared with neighboring countries. Food self-sufficiency has been achieved for most products. Food crops include maize, bananas (including sweet plantains), rice, sorghum, coconuts, sweet potatoes, millet and beans (mainly kidney beans). Tanzania is one of the world's biggest exporters of sisal. Its foreign trade, highly dependent on agriculture, is nevertheless suffering from low world prices, a problem that affects many developing countries.
Problematic and endemic corruption
Corruption has long undermined Tanzania's economy. The country's president John Magufuli, who was in office from 2015 to 2020 (now deceased), has made the fight against corruption one of his spearheads. We've seen a few changes as now no national park accepts cash, only CB payments and Tanapa cards prepaid at banks, with money tracking, are accepted. Nearly 10,000 civil servants with false diplomas have been ejected from the national administration. Corruption remains high, at 62 out of 100 against 70 in 2015, for the public sector in 2022 according to the corruption index of the NGO Transparency International, placing the country 98th in the world. Samia Suluhu, the new Tanzanian president who succeeded John Magufuli, is determined to continue the fight against corruption, even if there is still a long way to go.
Livestock and fisheries under-exploited
Livestock breeding has reached rather satisfactory levels. Tanzania has a very large livestock population. But almost all of this livestock belongs to rural families, with no intention or possibility of exporting it, which means a certain loss of income for the country. Tanzania's potential fish resources are enormous, thanks to both the large freshwater lakes and the 800 km of Indian Ocean coastline. But 95% of fishing is done by small-scale independent fishermen, using archaic techniques in traditional boats. As a result, resources remain largely underexploited, particularly when it comes to easily exportable species such as lobster and shrimp. Finally, the country is 40% forested, producing several millionm3 of wood a year, which is unfortunately rarely replaced.
Industrial development driven by mining
Industry accounts for around 30% of GDP, an ever-increasing share of Tanzania's GDP. However, as in many other African countries, the reluctance of investors to set up in Tanzania stems from the low level of training of the workforce and the low creditworthiness of the potential market. But also, and perhaps above all, the difficulty and cost of importing the materials needed first for installation, then for operation and production. Mining is one of the fastest-growing activities in Tanzania: the country has four gold mines and ranks4th among the continent's producers, after South Africa, Ghana and Mali. The main resources currently mined are diamonds, tanzanite, rubies, gold, titanium and coal. The subsoil also contains iron, nickel, copper, cobalt, kaolin and graphite, which are virtually untapped.
Services, the strong point of the country's economy
Services account for almost 50% of GDP. In Tanzania, civil servants still account for a significant proportion of the working population, excluding public enterprises. In a poor, still rural country suffering from a lack of industrialization, this is hardly surprising. The police are omnipresent, and the army is still very important, with almost 1% of GDP devoted to it. However, a growing proportion of the working population in the tertiary sector is now represented by private services, trade and tourism.
The booming tourism sector holds out great hope
Spectacular for the safaris it offers, a beach holiday in Zanzibar or climbing Kilimanjaro, Tanzania is attracting more and more tourists. Over the past 10 years, the tourism sector has gone from strength to strength. It already contributes over 16% of the country's GDP, and even 30% of Zanzibar's GDP. Revenues generated by tourism in Tanzania have risen to reach 3 billion dollars by 2023 and a total of around 1.5 million tourists per year. Tanzania offers a very high-end range of both safari and beach holidays in Zanzibar. The high entrance fees to its national parks and the high standard of its lodges make it a luxury destination that is profitable for the state. The country is particularly safe and calm, and is increasingly well served by airlines from Europe. The Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) has signed concessions or authorizations to create hotels with major Western investors. Finally, the promotion of sport hunting (trophies) of animals often from endangered species (which of course creates great controversy and scandal worldwide) generates very substantial revenues, as a hunter spends an average of US$35,000 in the country.
Effective anti-poaching measures
Sad record: the pangolin was - just before the Covid-19 - the most poached animal in the world. The scales and claws of this animal are said to have medicinal and aphrodisiac properties in traditional Asian medicines. As is the horn of the rhinoceros, now the most endangered animal in Africa. Other large mammals are also at risk, the elephant in particular, for its ivory, which is traded on a lucrative scale. Ivory is still intensely coveted for palanquins in China, dagger handles and game pieces in the Middle East... Even today, it is a major source of trafficking. It's hard to put a figure on pangolin poaching. Elephant carcasses, on the other hand, are more visible. Tanzania's elephant population, which stood at 110,000 in 2009, was slaughtered and reduced to 34,000 in 2014. But according to the government, their population will have increased again to 60,000 by 2024, as poaching is expected to have fallen by almost 70% between 2014 and 2023, thanks to the intensified efforts of the National Anti-Poaching Task Force (NTAP). Technological tools such as motion detectors from Japan are said to have significantly improved poachers' tracking techniques. Rhinos, reduced to a few hundred individuals in Africa, have jumped from 15 to 167 in Tanzania in 4 years, including reintroductions. That's right: not having the Big 5 in an ultra-renowned national park is just average marketing, and when you're selling safaris, you've got to see at least one! As a result, Zimbabwe and South Africa export rhinos for a lot of money to their safari neighbors. Lions, so numerous in the Serengeti, have seen their overall population drop by 50% in 25 years across the continent. While there are still some 25,000 lions in Africa, including between 3,000 and 3,500 in the Serengeti, their population is set to fall even further. However, countries such as Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia continue to allow the hunting of lion trophies for financial gain.
Maasai expulsion to Ngorongoro and Loliondo
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), a vast 8,288 km2 area, surrounds the crater itself, which is classified as a National Park. The Maasai have historically lived in this region with their herds of cows, but no longer in the crater since the park was created in 1959. Originally nomadic pastoralists, they have now settled en masse. When the National Park was created in 1959, there were 8,000 of them living in the famous ZCN, and today there are over 100,000. Their livestock numbers have soared in just a few years, from 260,000 head in 2017 to over a million in 2023! The cause: the fertile plains at altitude, but also the traffic: many investors entrust cows to the Maasai who live there - free land is a godsend! As a result, the area is seriously threatened by overpopulation, especially as wood is exploited for cooking and heating. But the Maasai accuse the government of driving them off their historic lands to turn them into a national safari park or hunting reserve. This is absolutely true at Loliondo, on the Kenyan border (outside the NCA). Under cover of an official reason for conflict between the Maasai populations and the animals, a project to "sanctuarize" 1,500 km2 of the 4,000m2 area would drive 70,000 people from their villages, to create a "safari, hunting and conservation" zone. An eviction described as "brutal", "illegal" and "shocking" by Amnesty International. In reality, the wealthy United Arab Emirates company Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC) is behind the project, to create a trophy hunting area... A double scandal. In total: 150,000 Maasai could be expelled from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the Loliondo region. The proposed "voluntary" relocation has not convinced many people to date. Worse still, in June 2022, Maasai protesting against the placing of beacons in Loliondo defining human and animal zones were shot at with live ammunition by the police and retaliated with arrows. The toll was 33 bullet wounds and one death among the Maasai, and one death among the police.
